An Assessment of Price Convergence Between Natural Gas and Solar Photovoltaic in the U.S. Electricity Market. By Joseph Nyangon, John Byrne and Job Taminiau. WIREs Energy and Environment. Volume 6, Issue 3. May/June 2017.
Shale gas boom in Pennsylvania is a major driver of strong growth in natural gas production in counties such as Washington, Bradford, and Susquehanna with positive effects on (a) gas spot prices, (b) wages and local business activity, and (c) economic diversification and infrastructure development. A multidimensional market perspective is applied to study natural gas and solar PV markets in the United States for evidence of price convergence and integration using Phillips‐Sul convergence test and Kalman filter time‐varying analysis as well as assessing the performance of MAC Global Solar Energy Index (SUNIDX) and S&P GSCI (natural gas) indices. Modeled LCOE for solar PV and natural gas systems average 12.95¢/kWh and 9.5¢/kWh, respectively. Abstract | Full Text | PDF | References

The shale gas revolution has fundamentally transformed energy markets domestically and abroad. Rising production has led to falling gas and oil prices in the U.S., while Europe, in contrast, is paying four to five times more for its natural gas and becoming one of the biggest importers of U.S. coal. As recently as five or six years ago this turnabout seemed improbable, with many analysts calling for rapid growth in renewable energy investment as the best means by which to wean the nation from its dependence on imported oil. Even then, such investment seemed far-fetched as the liquidity crisis worsened during the 2008-2012 global recession, forcing the federal government to institute stringent fiscal and monetary stimulus to stabilize the financial market and institutions. Taken together, the shale gas revolution represents the maturation of industry-friendly policies started under President Bush and continued during the Obama Administration. These policies supported the introduction of advanced technologies such as hydraulic fracturing, tight-oil extraction, horizontal drilling, innovative industrial software and other digital solutions, which have allowed production companies to economically extract oil and gas from previously inaccessible or financially infeasible shale rock formations with breathtaking speed. Most tantalizingly, this is a story of the triumph of a combination of economics of energy (operating by its own rules of supply and demand), the power of government-funded research and development (R&D), and getting the relationship right between the government and private sectors. [PDF]

This paper reviews the outcome of the inaugural meeting of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), while developing a political economy account of how institutional arrangements of international environmental governance has impeded effective environmental reform. Multilaterally, international environmental governance continues to exhibit elements of complexity, fragmentation, lack of coordination as well as redundancy. In more critical terms, lack of policy integration between environmental regimes is a concern of environmental governance that the new UNEA should address as a matter of priority. Furthermore, incoherent policy objectives in international environmental law often characterised as a governance patchwork have been criticized for their economic orthodoxies that only serve to marginalize and delegitimize alternative modes of environmental governance. In this regard, a core part of UNEA’s institutional legitimacy depends on its success in coevolving to keep up with environmental challenges as they themselves change, as well as enhancing consensus-based stakeholder engagement, perspectives, and participation on environmental governance. This will be its true litmus test on how it responds coherently and effectively to international environmental governance in a post-2015 development world.

Joseph Nyangon (2016). Synergies of Renewable Energy and Natural Gas in the U.S. Power Sector: Addressing Regulatory Barriers for a New Energy Future, Research Report. Newark, DE: CEEP, University of Delaware.

Nabeel Alabbas and Joseph Nyangon (2016). “Techno-Economic Modeling and Sensitivity Analysis of Costs and Benefits of Renewable Energy Transition for Saudi Arabia: A First Order Analysis.” Report Prepared for the United States Association of Energy Economics (USAEE) Case Competition and sponsored by the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies And Research Center (KAPSARC), 34th North American Conference, Tulsa, Oklahoma, October 24, 2016. [Report] [Presentation]

Asheline Appleton, Atieno Ndomo, Lisa Schipper, and Joseph Nyangon (2006). “A Summary Report of the Development and Adaptation Days at the Twelfth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention & 2nd Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol.” Development and Adaptation Days Bulletin. November 14, 2006. [Website] [PDF]